I tried this mod in Adventure Mode yesterday (partly because I'm already playing a fortress in DF vanilla, and partly because Adventure Mode lets me play a Fallout kind of character).
The first world I generated was completely overrun with Supermutants, so I stopped the second world generation at 100 years. Supermutants are still predominant, though (there are only two vault-dweller civilizations on Earth). I know you want to keep them strong, but can you drastically lower their birth rate maybe?
My character started out far from his people. (I want to return there, so I can play as a defender of the vault people.) As it turned out, I started in a Supermutant hamlet. Well, as I say, they're everywhere. But there was immediately a war cry and indications of combat.
I started sneaking and opened the door to the first building. It was full of Supermutants, fighting among themselves. (Actually, a Supermutant swordsman seemed to be fighting the Supermutant civilians in the town.) I have no idea what was going on, but I figured my poor little vault-dweller would get the heck out of town, so that's what I did. I don't think that anyone even saw me.
I headed north, starting the long journey to my people. There were lots of food plants and scrap piles around, but I couldn't figure out how to interact with any of them.
I couldn't pick up rocks, either. Apparently, knapper is not a craft skill in this mod, but can't we pick up rocks to throw? Or is there something I'm missing here? Edit: I don't know what I was doing wrong, but picking up rocks works fine now. My apologies.I encountered two dust storms, and they were really neat. I had to stop sneaking in order to get out of their way. Note that this worked perfectly - they were hard to avoid, but not overly difficult, as long as I wasn't stopped by combat or bad terrain. (As I say, I did have to stop sneaking, because that made me too slow.)
After awhile, I tried another village. This time, when I opened the first door, cannibals immediately spotted me and started to attack. (I wish I could tell what kind of village it is without opening a door!) However, there was a Supermutant inside, too, and he started attacking the cannibals! I really don't know what that's all about. What's going on with these Supermutants?
At any rate, only a cannibal child got close enough to attack me, and I ruthlessly counterattacked. Then I ran away again.
It's almost night, and I haven't found a place to stay or anyone to join me - any friendlies at all, in fact. I started with a bayonet* (apparently, that's considered a spear?), but I haven't been able to find any rocks to throw. Well, so far I haven't encountered any wildlife, either. I'll continue as long as I can and then maybe surround myself with campfires before sleeping.
The one big problem I'm having is that the game is often just
painfully slow. I don't notice that on vanilla DF, but this mod takes a
lot of patience. I don't have the FPS counter turned on, but it can take five seconds between steps when I'm walking across open ground (with no other creatures around, that I can see).
Luckily, it's not always that bad. But I'll typically take a few steps fairly quickly, and then have to sit and wait for the next step to resolve itself. I guess I need a more powerful computer to play this. So I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it.
Still, I love the idea behind this mod, and I'm enjoying it so far. Thanks, Deon! I know that your mod is aimed more at Fortress Mode, but I just like the idea of playing a Fallout scenario - a lone vault-dweller exploring the wasteland. It's just a shame that your character doesn't start in his own civilization, so that you can recruit companions right away (but that's a DF limitation, I'm sure).
*PS. I thought it made more sense as a vault-dweller to start with a gun, but there was no "gun skill" option. Now, however, I realize that this was "crossbow skill." I just wasn't thinking, I guess. But a bayonet is fine, too, at least for now. (I just love ranged weapons, in all games, pretty much.)